John F. Kennedy?

Question

Does anyone know exactly what he did to chage the world? Iv'e been researching him and i can't quit find what im looking for. Does anyone know?

Answer 1

~He almost started a nuclear war when he put US nukes in Turkey, well within range of Moscow. The Soviets demanded the removal of the missiles. The US refused. Previously during Kennedy's administration, the US had attempted to invade Cuba (the Bay of Pigs fiasco) and to assassinate Castro. Castro's fear of the US helped drive Fidel into the arms of the Soviets and was instrumental in his decision to allow the Soviets to put their missiles on his island. This became the 'Cuban Missile Crisis". The crisis was resolved when Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev proposed that he would immediately and publicly withdraw his missiles from Cuba on the condition that Kennedy quietly and without fanfare pull his out of Turkey within six months. Kennedy is painted as a hero in the fiasco, but it was his action that precipitated the crisis in the first place and only when he backed down was the matter resolved.

During the crisis, and the full time he was in office, JFK was addicted to speed and was taking at least nine (9) medications known to cloud one's judgment and cognitive abilities. In fact, the Air Force will not allow one taking even ONE of those meds to speak on the radio in a supervisory capacity to a pilot in the air. He regularly lied about his health (especially his Addison's Disease) and his medications, and instructed his family and staff to do the same. When Bobby pleaded with him to kick the amphetamines because of what they were doing and could do to him, he told Bobby "I don't care if it's horse piss. It works". He continued to have "Dr. Feelgood", Max Jacobs, travel with him. He had been warned of the danger of the steroids he had been taking for more than a decade (although the full extent of the danger was not then known) and continued to take them. The steroids, according to medical reports, may have exacerbated or even caused some of his other (numerous) ailments. His constant ingestion of testosterone may have been in part responsible for his insatiable sexual appetite. That is still no excuse for sharing a mistress (Judith Exner) with Chicago mob boss Sam 'Momo' Giancana.

One lasting effect JFK had on Cuba traces back to the sugar embargo. As a result of his trade embargoes against Cuba, which are still in place today, the Cuban economy collapsed and countless Cubans were driven into abject poverty and starvation. Castro again was forced to turn to the USSR for assistance.

He lied during his campaign and throughout his term in office about the "missile gap". There WAS a huge disparity between the number, range, capability and reliability of US and Soviet missiles. However, despite what Kennedy told us, now declassified documents (which were available to JFK at the time) prove the advantage was overwhelmingly on the side of the US. In any case, JFK and his Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, developed the policy of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) and started the most massive and dangerous arms buildup (particularly nukes) in the history of mankind.

Knowing he needed the Black vote, Kennedy did pay lip service to the Civil Rights movement, but most significant Civil Rights legislation was passed during the Johnson Administration. Kennedy could see the writing on the wall and he carried forward some of the work in that area that had been started by Eisenhower and the Warren Court. On the other hand, JFK and brother Bobby tried their best to convince A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin to call off their planned demonstration for Civil Rights in Washington. Randolph and Rustin were joined by Martin Luther King, Jr. and they announced that they were going to go forward. Having little choice, and not wanting to admit his impotence in stopping the affair or his lack of influence with civil rights leaders and not wanting to lose more support from potential voters (or from Congress for his Civil Rights bill) JFK did an about face and proclaimed his support for the "March on Washington", whereat King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. Bobby was in charge of the Justice Department (as brother Jack's Attorney General -a scary thought given Bobby's role in the McCarthy witch hunts) when several Civil Rights leaders, such as King, were illegally wiretapped.

Kennedy first increased the number of advisers in Vietnam, then decided to withdraw, but not until he approved (Ordered? From the now declassified transcripts, he was ambiguous enough to maintain plausible deniability) the assassination of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem (whom he had previously ordered the CIA to protect). A more docile US puppet, Nguyen Van Thieu, replaced Diem. JFK continued the policy started under Dwight Eisenhower to ignore that aspect of the Geneva Accords of 1954 which required elections and re-unification of Vietnam in 1956. Of course, the US, having refused to sign the Accords (knowing that Ho Chi Minh was going to win the internationally supervised elections) claimed the US was not bound by them and, of course, the elections were not held until after the fall of Saigon.

In response to the Soviet's stunning accomplishments in their space program, which was far, far further advanced than that of the US, he said that "We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." [ Pierre Salinger and Ted Sorensen did have a way with words, didn't they?.] Under LBJ and Nixon the actual work got done. JFK was working for a cooperative space effort with the Soviets and khrushchev had agreed (at least in principle) but Kennedy was killed before the joint project came to fruition and it laid in limbo for decades.

Kennedy did organize the Peace Corps and he put his brother-in-law, Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr., in charge. However, the name was created by Peter Grothe, an aid of Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, when Grothe drafted a proposed bill for Humphrey to introduce to the Senate in May, 1960. Grothe asked Humphrey for permission to take the project to Kennedy after the latter had won the nomination and HHH readily and enthusiastically approved. Kennedy introduced the project in his last major speech before the 1960 election, naturally failing to give due credit to Grothe for the name or to Humphrey for the concept. [Sidelight to history: Grothe informed Kennedy campaign staff that Humphrey's pollsters had gotten tremendous feedback from Protestants over his proposal because they likened the 'Peace Corps' concept to Protestant missionary work. Kennedy, a Catholic, desperately needed Protestant votes. After consultation with Archibald Cox and others, it was agreed JFK should call for creation of a 'Peace Corps' to garner those votes.]

Kennedy's accomplishments were not very significant. Had he not been killed in Dallas, it is highly questionable that he could have won a second term. On the basis of recently released medical records, it is possible Kennedy would not have lived out another term and may not have lived out another campaign. He (and his father) continuously put his ego and thirst for power and fame ahead of the good of the country. His martyrdom has greatly enhanced his memory, or more accurately, his myth.

Answer 2

Some of the obvious ones were:

1. The Cuban missile crisis and the blockade of Cuba.

2. His mandate to NASA to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s.

3. His declaration of solidarity with the citizens of Berlin at the Berlin Wall.

Answer 3

JFK was VERY influential in the Civil Rights Movement. He was the first US President to attempt to further the cause of black citizens.

Answer 4

To be honest, Kennedy is more remembered for the way he died then what he did in office.